Dear Minister,

We, members of the Homes for All coalition, are delighted that your department is working across government to develop a long-term housing strategy to reform the housing market to work better for communities, build 1.5 million high-quality homes, and deliver the biggest increase in affordable housing for a generation.

To ensure the strategy’s ambitions are delivered into the long-term future and to enable the fundamental systems change needed to address today’s deep-rooted challenges, we urge you to consider establishing a Statutory National Housing Committee to create a mechanism to both inform government housing policy development and hold government to account for progress in the future.

The Climate Change Committee provides a useful model of a non-political, statutory body that provides expert advice to government on its progress towards agreed climate targets, and reports to Parliament on progress towards goals. Similarly, we believe that a National Housing Committee is needed to provide robust evidence on how any proposed future measures will assist the delivery towards the aims of the Housing Strategy, and to avoid unintended consequences in this complex, cross-cutting policy area. Alongside the strategy, a National Housing Committee would be an impactful historical legacy for this bold and ambitious government.

Establishing a new National Housing Strategy Committee in law would hold future governments to account and ensure work continues to deliver the housing ambitions of the upcoming strategy. It would supply vital expert advice, robust analysis and promote connections across different sectors and government departments far into the future. Our report, ‘Homes for All: A vision for England’s Housing System’, gives more background to our recommendations for a housing policy governance structure such as our proposed National Housing Committee.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you or your team to discuss the benefits and logistical considerations of a National Housing Committee.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Markey, Chief Executive, The Nationwide Foundation

Brian Berry, Chief Executive, Federation of Master Builders

Lord Richard Best, House of Lords

Tom Chance, Chief Executive, Community Land Trust Network

Matt Downie, Chief Executive, Crisis

Dr Carole Easton, Chief Executive, Centre for Ageing Better

Guli Francis-Dehqani, Church of England lead bishop for housing

Shelagh Grant, Chief Executive, The Housing Forum

Kate Henderson, Chief Executive, National Housing Federation

Fiona Howie, Chief Executive, Town and Country Planning Association

Melanie Leech, Chief Executive, British Property Federation

Ian McDermott, Chief Executive, Peabody

Melissa Mean, Director, WeCanMake

Jim Reed, Director, People Powered Homes and Chief Executive, Leeds Community Homes

Duncan Shrubsole, Chief Executive, St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity

Gavin Smart, Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Housing

Danny Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive, New Economics Foundation

Ben Twomey, Chief Executive, Generation Rent

Bonnie Williams, Chief Executive, Housing Justice

A recording is available below.

The webinar was opened by Isabel Barnes, Head of Cross-Cutting Housing Strategy at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – the team responsible for the government’s national housing strategy, which will be published later this year. She said:

“Thanks to… the Homes for All team for all of their work and support in helping us build the evidence base around the strategy.”

“Addressing the crisis is obviously not going to be easy and ministers have been clear this requires a long-term view and working across government departments, and the government working closely with all parts of the housing system to bring about the change that we need. A core part of that is having a long-term housing strategy.”

Alex Marsh of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence went on to outline key learning from new research currently underway to examine what works (and what doesn’t) for other national housing strategies around the world.

He outlined three core dimensions that must be satisfied for national strategy to be successful – Politics, Polity and Policy – and explored how they must be accounted for in Preparation, Design and Implementation of strategic activities.

“One of the things we’re trying to develop in the way this piece of research is reported, is to keep these three dimensions of strategy explicit and in play.”

“A lot of the commentary on housing policy or housing studies and its engagement with policy, zooms in quite quickly on policy and the substance of policy… and quite often stands back from the broader conditions under which strategy is likely to evolve and be created, but secondarily the conditions under which it’s likely to be sustained over time.”

David Orr, Chair of Homes for All, was our final speaker and he highlighted the need for long-term, clearly defined outcomes for a new housing strategy alongside a legislative structure that is embedded in governance.

“[Homes for All] put together a big coalition of different kinds of organisations – housing organisations, but also organisations who understand that heir work is profoundly affected by what happens in our housing policy and delivery…

“The intention was to try to bring together a range of thinking, knowledge, experience and expertise to challenge the fundamental underlying problems that we all know so well… [These] can properly be categorised as a lack of strategy, coherence and an overabundance of instant initiatives, ideas, thoughts…

“For something which is so profoundly long-term in its investment, its impact, in its implications for our health as individuals, as communities and as society collectively, we have been ill-served by that array of very short-term thinking.”

Jonathan Lewis of Nationwide Foundation, Homes for All funder, summed up the webinar with thanks to all who joined.

He urged anyone interested in supporting a successful vision for England’s homes to sign our joint open letter to the Minister, Matthew Pennycook,which asks him to consider a statutory National Housing Committee.

To support the letter please contact Jonathan at Jonathan.Lewis@nationwidefoundation.org.uk by 10am Monday 10th March.

What’s needed for a housing strategy to deliver? Lessons from international experience

The Government is currently creating a National Housing Strategy to solve England’s housing crisis. But how can we ensure it delivers sustainable change?

This webinar is a vital discussion of the long-term structures and mechanisms needed for lasting impact.

We’ll be joined by Alex Marsh (University of Bristol) and David Orr (Clarion Housing) who will outline new research on housing strategies across a selection of OECD countries to explore what has worked (and what hasn’t).

This brand new analysis provides unique insight on how to develop and implement real sustainable change that will create safe, decent, quality homes for all in England.

Register here: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/c26d9164-69e6-4bdc-8b2d-06a40da4e61d@18ed93f5-e470-4996-b0ef-9554af985d50

Hosted on Teams by the Nationwide Foundation.
A recording will be available after the event.

The Nationwide Foundation and the New Statesman hosted a panel discussion on
Homes for All featuring the new Minister for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook
MP. The Minister was joined by panelists Meg Hillier MP, Satvir Kaur MP and Kate
Markey (CEO of Nationwide Foundation) and David Orr (Chair of Homes for All and
Clarion Housing).

The event focused on ways in which Labour can shape the future of housing in England
as the government begins announcing their plans for England’s homes, including the
national housing strategy and a commitment to building 1.5 million new homes.

The Housing Minister noted that England is “in the grip of an acute and… entrenched
housing crisis [that is] a systems issue”and vowed to change every aspect of it, rather
than focusing on the piecemeal policy change we have endured for decades. He also
stated that the government will soon set out a long-term housing strategy with a clear
end point vision, “which is very simply a decent, safe, affordable home for everyone in
the country.”

As Kate Markey said: “No modern government has truly articulated a vision and a
strategy of what housing is for… The Government needs to determine what a well-
functioning housing system looks like and then develop the policies to take us there.

“If it doesn’t, siloed policies with unintended consequences will persist and people will
continue not to be able to access the decent and affordable homes they need.”

David Orr commented “Housing doesn’t exist in isolation and so much policy-making, so
many decisions, have been made as though you do something in housing and it has no
impact anywhere else…

“If we understand that this is a systemic failure, and it is indeed a systemic failure right
now, we have to think about what is the systemic long-term response to it.”

The panel agreed that fixing the housing crisis will also have an impact on other social
issues, such as educational under-attainment, economic immobility and childhood
poverty. The panel also discussed issues with the prevailing – and damaging – narrative that housing is merely a commodity or investment. Satvir Kaur MP stated that “a decent, safe, affordable home is intrinsically linked to better life outcomes”.

Homes for All believes that a decent, affordable home is the foundation of a flourishing
life and welcomes the Minister’s closing encouragement to those present to keep
pushing the government to go further and faster with its housing policy. We remain
committed to supporting and challenging the Government to ensure we have safe,
affordable, quality homes for all across England – as a central part of its growth agenda
for communities and the economy.

You can read the New Statesman’s full summary of the event on their website here.

On 23 April 2024, we launched the Homes for All vision in the House of Lords to call for a transformation to England’s housing sector and homes with the support of stakeholders throughout the sector. Safe, affordable, quality homes are the foundations of our lives. They are vital to our health and wellbeing, ensuring we can contribute to society and deliver economic growth that lasts.

Yet the reality for millions of people across England is that housing is unaffordable, insecure and unsafe, damaging their health, causing them anxiety and stress, impacting on their ability to work or gain education. England’s housing system has been in crisis for decades. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Homes for All is a national coalition of organisations and experts from across the housing sector, led by the Nationwide Foundation and the Church of England. We have come together to outline a better vision for England’s home through collaboration, long-term strategic thinking and governance, and national courage and leadership.

Our launch event outlined the research and thinking behind our 25-point vision for change, the strategy for achieving that vision and the governance mechanism that holds policy-making to account.

We were delighted to be joined at the House of Lords launch event by over 50
people from across the housing sector – and beyond – including coalition supporters
at the National Housing Federation, Crisis, the New Economics Foundation and
more.
Bishop Guli introduced the proceedings. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin
Welby, then spoke candidly about the depth of the crisis. Speeches were given by
representatives from across the political spectrum – Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat);
Baroness Sharon Taylor (Labour Party); and Baroness Kay Swinburne (Conservative
party) showcasing cross-party commitment to addressing housing policy and reform
for the long-term.

These speakers were followed by engaged discussion. Here’s what other attendees
had to say:

Danny Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation:

Kunle Barker, Property Expert, Writer, and Broadcaster: